The " Friendly neighbour next door" civ

[Bad F-Line]

I agree with Azazel about territoriality - nothing ticks me off more than when my neighbors send a galleon with a settler in it blithely sailing into my mainland, plunking down a city, totally oblivious to the fury that awaits them for invading my turf...
No one really wins the prize for most gracious , but I think I've had the least trouble out of the Iroquois and the Indians - but even they will stab you in the back if they get the right offer... normally peaceful civs will get dragged into war before you know it...

[Apep]

CRUSH THEM ALL!!!!!!! HAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!*
*Note: Sorry for the all caps, I realise it was wrong and will not ever do it again! Unless I want to ''

[Lord Merciless]

They are all a**holes.

On Deity level, you can't afford to give any civ some slacks. Basically, you have to mess everyone up or they will beat you in Space Race.

On Emperor level, it's possible to settle down peacefully after wiping 1/3 of the civs out or having 2x the landmass of your next competitor.

At lower difficult levels, Chinese, Indians, French, and Iroquois are generally ok.

The worst neighbors are Romans, Germans, and Persians.

[Beren]

Friendly civs? Never heard of them. What are they good for? You'll have to conquer them anyway.

[Finvola]

I would say that the Persians are definately my least favorite neighbors. I play with randomly picked civs and I always keep my fingers crossed that they're not in the game. They always just push their luck with me and declare war because their knickers are in a twist. I'm the only one allowed to do that!

[Jethro83]

I also hate the Persians with a passion. However, instead of hoping they don't appear, I actually hope they DO appear near me at the beginning of each game. That way, I can have the ultimate pleasure of kicking Xerxes' skull around like a football. Since my early army is mostly horsemen, I can use my army's mobility, the Persian army's lack of mobility and defensive power to my advantage.

Then when they do push their luck with me, there will be no mercy. Only justice.

[johncmcleod]

Though the Zulu are aggressive, I'm always friends with them. I also get along with the Iroquois, the Persians (they're always nice to me), and the Babylonians. I hate the Russians.

[Egbert]

Umh, there seems to be no such thing as a friendly civ. Perhaps they remain friendly while you are giving them so much that you hurt yourself but sooner or later all of them turn on you regardless of your actions.

EDIT paragraph deleted.

The best strategy, so far as I can tell, is that of a bloodthirsty and ruthless warmonger (exactly the sort of game I most dislike unfortunately). You often must fight for land and tech and the AI aggression is utterly vicious (the AI will trade techs among themselves very quickly so you may not have enough gold to offer them for techs so you need brute force). A civilised perfectionist strategy seems distinctly suboptimal.

I so wish there was a peaceful option in this game (eg the AI will NEVER attack first). Umh, I suppose someone will point out that there are peaceful pathways to victory. Those peaceful pathways tend to involve awesome amounts of violence along the way.

[Az]

It's great to hear that most of the people enjoy playing the game and participating in the events, and not just racing along against the other civs. I find that 'rat race' not fun at all. Civ 3 improved this because now , you can be a medium civ for a lot of time, and you'll get better scoring than a civ that was best but only for a blink of a sec. I really like that.

[Egbert]

I have only had this game for about three weeks but my opinions have changed very quickly in that time. I started playing with a Civ 2 mentality and yes the AI did play "gang up on the human player". I experimented with the diplomacy and trade options and found that one can mostly peacefully co-exist if one is a good neighbour ones self and if one keeps a good reputation. (In Civ2 reputation made no difference and there was no point being diplomatic so I approached Civ 3 in the same way). There is no need need to give gifts (at least up to regent), trade will suffice.

In Civ3 it is not necessary to be a warmonger (at least up to regent level) and treachery costs you at any difficulty level.

Umh, yes I have changed my opinions dramatically since my previous post on 2 Dec (see above).

[bobbo008]

Germans demand tribute and fortunately for them, I'm usually the little b*tch to do it. Russians just invade and are usually so weak I gain several cities the next turn.

There should be an ability to claim some territory, because those damn holes in my empire that the AI LOVES to fill in for me are the worst part of the whole game in my opinion.

Also, the game just feels like a single player game. It is always YOU who has to watch out for being ganged up on and watching how other civs view you.

[Quasar1011]

Originally posted by Lecommencement
Russia is the absolute worst neighbor ever. Of all the other civs I hate Catherine the most. Evil Russians!

I agree! I've probably played about 40 games of Civ3, and the Russians usually are the worst neighbors . Certainly, Catherine makes more demands on me than anyone. I have learned to call her bluff though. Next to Catherine, the Germans demand the most tribute.

Best neighbors for me are the Greeks, with probably the Babylonians and French behind them. I do agree that Hammurabi can be conniving, and he does have a knack of beating me to wonders

[Quasar1011]

Originally posted by Lecommencement
Russia is the absolute worst neighbor ever. Of all the other civs I hate Catherine the most. Evil Russians!

I agree! I've probably played about 40 games of Civ3, and the Russians usually are the worst neighbors . Certainly, Catherine makes more demands on me than anyone. I have learned to call her bluff though. Next to Catherine, the Germans demand the most tribute.

Best neighbors for me are the Greeks, with probably the Babylonians and French behind them. I do agree that Hammurabi can be conniving, and he does have a knack of beating me to wonders

[Egbert]

Umh, I've changed my mind some more about good neighbours. If I want to go on the rampage I find the Zulus perhaps the most desirable neighbours, always ready to join forces and go bonk some heads. They are quite likely to develope a "gracious" attitude towards me. As Shaka says "You can have the Zulu defending your flank". The civs that tend to get off to a good start (eg. America, China, Egypt) are also desired neigbours in such a circumstance so that each might be divvied up between me and the Zulus and I get more cities than the Zulus. I also like the Zulus because they tend to have low culture so I can flip their cities (umh I fight military & diplomatic wars in league with Zululand whilst making cultural war upon the Zulu to lure their cities to me).

OTH If I want a peaceful game the Zulu are not desired neighbours, I may finish up fighting them whether I want to or not. Who is a "good neighbour" seems to depend upon you want to do to them or do with them.

[High_Lord]

Germany never wants to trade me for my goods, always demands tribute just so I will refuse and they can War plus Bismarck has that old man smell...

India is ok but if they get too big Ghandi is just as big an A-hole as anyone....

Persia...I HATE XERXES!!!!

Hammurabi is a wuss that I usually destroy early ancient if my neighbor...


Russia and China are big and stupid, always bluffing for tributes...Zulu are very strong willed even when beaten down Very far...Aztecs are pretty saucy when they are far away from you...

America...Abe is perhaps one of the sneakiest s.o.b's in my games...I have been sneak attacked the most by America than by any other AI (second would be Germany) and they are usually always polite or EVEN gracious the turn that they attack....

Japan is usually nice to me...France is ok if they are very big and ahead of me they dont care to whip me...Rome is mostly cool they never get very big in my games...Iriquois bluff a lot if they are big but usually do nothing...Greece , I will agree that ol Alex doesnt demand stuff much of the time, probably one of the most CIVILIZED in the game...but overall the Civ that is usually the most compliant and trustworthy throughout the ages , for me, is ENGLAND--

but of course as has been pointed out repeatedly , the situation can vary with the size and relative strength of nations, their placement, resources, difficulty,game settings and so on...answers to this thread probably tell more just of playing styles and Preferences than AI diplomatic tendancies